Holiday travel within Europe exceeds 2022 levels despite safety warnings from authorities across the Old Continent, as consumers remain determined to enjoy the holidays, extending a post-pandemic travel boom .

Christmas markets and popular tourist attractions in cities such as Munich and Paris have been crowded latelyalthough with a strong presence of the security forces, while the trips during the holiday season in the European Union and the Britain is expected to increase by 22% above 2022 levels, according to data from travel firm ForwardKeys.

The Christmas arrivals in places such as Italythe Australia and the Sweden they have also increased by 25% or more in a year.

The peak is due to the fact that demand for travel remains elevated after the pandemic, executives and analysts say, with some traveling to see family for the first time this year since the pandemic.

Brake for a while but the desire to travel wins

In late November, European security officials warned of a growing risk of attacks linked to the Israel-Hamas war, with the greatest threat coming from potential “lone wolves”.

Two Islamist attacks in October in France and Belgium killed three people and those two countries, Austria, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina have raised their terror alert level. Italy has reintroduced border controls with Slovenia, citing the risk of militants entering the country.

there was one slight increase in ticket cancellations for the Christmas period between December 21 and 31, ForwardKeys announced, from 2.4% to 3% from November 24.

“Although this number is small, it may represent the impact of the terror alert sent across Europe after the recent conflict in Israel began,” said Juan Gomez, an analyst at ForwardKeys.

But tourists continued to flock to popular destinations, showing increased confidence in the security apparatus deployed in European hubs.

“I feel very safe and I am very well aware of the state of the world. And it’s certainly something I think about every day, both the conflicts in Europe and the conflicts in the Middle East,” says Gwen Fitzgerald of Boston, who visited a Christmas market in Munich this week. “But really, I am at the same time thirsty for joy».

Tourists say that, with the increase in warnings in recent years and the heightened security across Europe associated with those warnings, there is rather a sense of calm and they feel safe not to cancel their travel plans.

“When we are here and stay just one day in the city center, we see a lot of police and security, we feel safe,” says Danny Sanchez, a tourist from Villarreal, Spain visiting the Munich market.